“Colombiana,” a thriller currently playing at the Fandango Galaxy multiplex in Carson City and other local theaters, is a revenge film starring the big blue woman of “Avatar,” Zoe Saldana, as Cataleva Restrepo. The excellent Amandia Sternberg plays Restrepo as a young girl — and if there is anyone going to star in future movies it’s this young lady. She’s solemn, unfazed and a real actress.

As young Cataleva, she watches the slaying of her parents in their Bogota home, escapes with directions for help from her father. She makes her way to the U.S. consulate where she literally coughs up what her father said would be her passport. She is taken to the U.S. but escapes her tender.

She makes her way to Chicago, no mean for a sheltered 13-year-old girl, and finds her uncle Emilo (Cliff Curtis), a mobster who demands that she finish grammar school before becoming an assassin.

She learns her business, knocking off targets for pay (one obese gent is taken from his bevy of broads to die in a shark-filled pool; remind you of anything like 007?) and in between gaining revenge for her parents’ slaying.
Most of the action is pretty low-key until near the end where bombs and car chases take over. Director Olivier Magaton keeps the action rolling and producer Luc Besson, a veteran of such films, spares little in the action sequences.

Zoe is a pretty sexy lady and offers moments of humor amid seconds of death—she’s tough with a bazooka—and while her acting could be described as subdued, she makes a fine leading character. Drug kingpin Don Luis meets a satisfactory death (from Zoe’s point of view) and her lover Danny (Michael Vartan) sports a nice 5 o’clock shadow. Lennie James as the chief FBI overcomes double agent at the CIA Agent Williams (Max Martini) with Zoe’s help from a giant super rifle.

As thrillers go, this one goes nicely, maybe not the most creative film of the year, but Zoe is a sex-star quality. But she is upstaged by Sternberg as her younger self. What an a young star-to-be.

—Sam Bauman

Cast
• Zoe Saldana as Cataleya Restrepo
• Cliff Curtis as Emilio
• Amandla Stenberg as Young Cataleya Restrepo
• Michael Vartan as Danny Delanay
• Lennie James as Special Agent Ross
• Callum Blue as Richard
• Jordi Mollà as Marco
• Graham McTavish as Head Marshal Warren
• Max Martini as Special Agent Williams
• Jesse Borrego as Fabio
• Sam Douglas as William Woodward
• Doug Rao as Michael Shino

Directed by Olivier Megaton
Produced by Luc Besson
Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
Screenplay by Luc Besson
Cinematography Romain Lacourbas
Editing by Camille Delamarre
Rated PG13, runs 107 minutes